Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. in. The Pelagian Controversy. 53
the apparently contradictory language used by divines to
explain the combination of freewill with grace ; sometimes
the commencement of the spiritual life being attributed
to the human will and its completion to grace, and some
times its completion being attributed to the human will
and its commencement to grace. Under both modes of
speaking, the power
of the human will is secured : but
under the one the will uses an assisting, under the other it
earns a crowning grace. 1
Thus apparently sound and forced upon reason by the
necessity of the case, this position of an ultimate unassisted
strength in the natural will, was, nevertheless, the root of
all the errors, the extravagances, and the impieties of
Pelagianism. It was a position logically true, indeed, and
such as could not be denied without admitting the alter
native of irresistible grace or necessitarianism. Nor had it
been maintained with due modesty and reserve, as being
one side of the whole mysterious truth relating to human
action, would it have been otherwise than orthodox. But
to maintain absolutely and definitely an ultimate power in
the human will to move aright independently of God, was
a position untrue, and shocking to natural piety ;
a separa
tion of the creature from the Creator, which was opposed
to the very foundation of religion. And to proceed to
argue upon such a truth, and develop it, as if it were a
complete and ascertained premiss, upon which a system
could be erected, was to mistake its nature, and to run
at once into obliquity and error. But this was what the
Pelagians did. 2 For from this position the conclusion was
1 The general language of the opem. Ep. Prosperi inter Aug.
Pelagians allows an initiative grace Ep. 225. Quod enim dicitur. Crede
(provocans, excitans), and maintains et salvus eris unum ; horum exigi
a crowning will : Quod possumus asserunt, aliud offerri ; ut propter id
bonum facere illius estqui hoc posse quod exigitur si redditum fuerit, id
donavit ; quod vero bene agimus quod offertur deinceps tribuatur.
nostrum est. De Grat. Christi, c. Ep. Hilarii apud Aug. Ep. 226.
4. The Semipelagians speak of an Julian the Pelagian speaks of a cerinitiative
will and a crowning grace: tain state of perfection as a crowning
Priorem volunt obedientiam esse grace : ut hoc ipsum non peccare
qxiam gratiam, ut initium salutis ex prsemium censeamus. Op. Imp.
eo qui salvatur, non ex eo creden- Contra Jul. 1. 2. c. 166.
dum sit stare qui salvat, et voluntas 2 Quod possumus omne bonum
hominis divinse gratiae sibi pariat facere, dicere, cogilare, illius est qui